Strawberries - it's a fast growing business on one Essex farm.

In just a few weeks, a bumper crop of one million kilos of strawberries will have been picked from Pole House Farm on the Harwich Road in Lawford.

Fine fruit - supervisor Jolanta Chpak picks the strawberry crop at Pole House Farm, Lawford Picture: TERRY WEEDEN

And business is so ripe that the farm is expanding by nearly 50 per cent.

More greenhouses are being built and by the end of May an extra 18,000 sq metres will be full of yet more strawberries.

It's the sole crop on the farm owned by Peter and Julie Wensak who also have two more farms growing their favourite fruit in Norfolk.

At Lawford, some 16 people are employed full-time and there are now between 80 and 90 pickers in the greenhouses.

The strawberries are packaged at the nearby Fox Ash farm and then sent off to all the major supermarkets, including Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's and other leading stores.

Operations mananger John Marcar said, "It is a growing business and we are also building another 18,000 sq metres as we speak."

Published Wednesday, April 16, 2003

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